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by Barron H. Lerner, M.D.
Must doctors follow their own advice?
The issue often comes up when the obese doctor or the doctor who smokes advises a patient to lose weight or stop smoking. But I recently got to ponder the issue more personally when the severe pain of a kidney stone hit. Despite the extreme discomfort, I continued to work.

Difficult hernias can come in two forms: technically difficult hernias with complex anatomy or unique locations, and simple hernias that present as challenging because of a patient's past surgical history. Sometimes these overtly simple hernias present with bigger technical challenges.

Martin A. Makary , a surgeon and public health researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, had a long talk with a patient last week. The man had a tumor in his pancreas that was probably benign but might not be. Should Dr. Makary remove it? Or should the man have regular scans to see whether it grew?
“If you’re 25, the decision is easy — get rid of that risk,” Dr.

John Seewer, Associated Press
In this Dec. 14, 2010 photo, Tanner Hisey, center, puts icing on Christmas cookies with his sister Siera, right, and half-sister Tyler Smith in their home near Clyde, Ohio. Tanner, 12, and Tyler, 17, are among 36 kids who live within a few miles of this small farming town and have been struck by cancer in the last decade.

After dieting unsuccessfully her entire life, Barbara Warnock-Morgan, 46, decided she needed to do something radical.
“I was the fat kid,” she said. “Over the years I yo-yo dieted my way up the scale. I’d lose 20 pounds, then gain back 30.”
The cycle was so insidious that by her early 40s, Ms.

ER docs and nurses (and paramedics) are a superstitious lot. In no particular order, here are my favorites.
1. The “Q” word. “Quiet.” it’s truly the kiss of death. The “S” word, “slow” carries the same jinx. Usually some newbie nurse or clerk who is “not superstitious” will say, “Wow, I haven’t seen it this quiet in here in a while.

People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.
-Norman Cousins
Even many years later, my dad could still recall how his mother had hovered over him and wept. When he was 6 years old, one of the horses had pulled a hay wagon over his toes while he was helping in the fields.

During a conversation with the wife of one of my former surgery patients, I was surprised to learn that her husband had chosen to receive his postoperative chemotherapy treatments at a hospital across town from mine. His wife assured me that he had liked the highly respected colleague I had referred him to; what had troubled him was that the doctor’s office and the hospital chemotherapy infusion suites were, well, depressing.

December 14, 2010 5:05 am |
by David Earle, MD, FACS, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Baystate Medical Center, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine |
Comments

One of my most challenging hernia case was a gentleman in his 40s who had undergone a Hartmann's procedure for perforated diverticulitis and subsequent colostomy closure. He developed a large midline hernia as well as a hernia at the old stoma site in the left lower quadrant.

Young doctors raised in the sheltered environment of hospital systems are finding the foray into a private practice setting increasingly anxiety-provoking thanks to the economic uncertainty of such a practice due to the recent health care reform legislation. Consequently, many are turning to clinical research as an alternative career path.

Call it the McVictim syndrome. Too many pundits, public health experts and politicians are working overtime to find scapegoats for America’s obesity epidemic.
In his latest book, former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler argues that modern food is addictive. In it, he recounts how he was once helpless to stop himself from eating a cookie.

Surgical Products: Can you discuss how new health care legislation could affect hospital protocols for preventing infection? How will this change the standards hospitals have in place for preventing infection?
Crosby : The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains a national quality improvement strategy that includes improving patient health outcomes such as infection rates.

Imagine having a medical device that is being tested in multiple centers, but one doctor thinks the device has problems. He says so at a national conference despite glowing reviews by others. Should the company sue the doctor for liable and remove him from their investigative panel?
Today, it seems that might not be such a good idea.

“I need you to do me a favor,” my nurse asked me at the end of our day on Friday.
“Sure,” I answered, “what do you want?”
“Please have a better week next week,” she said with a pained expression. “I don’t think I can handle another one like this week.